Drupal 11 is the latest release of the enterprise-grade content management framework. Built on PHP 8.3+, it introduces Starshot initiative improvements and a modernised admin experience. This guide installs Drupal 11 on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS with Nginx, PHP 8.4, and MySQL 9.

Tested and valid on:

  • Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

Prerequisites

  • Ubuntu 26.04 LTS with Nginx, PHP 8.4, and MySQL 9
  • Composer installed globally
  • A domain name or server IP

Step 1 – Install PHP Extensions for Drupal

sudo apt install php8.4-fpm php8.4-gd php8.4-mysql php8.4-mbstring php8.4-xml 
  php8.4-curl php8.4-zip php8.4-bcmath php8.4-opcache -y

Step 2 – Create a MySQL Database

sudo mysql
CREATE DATABASE drupaldb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'DrupalPass2026!';
GRANT ALL ON drupaldb.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

Step 3 – Download Drupal 11 via Composer

cd /var/www
sudo composer create-project drupal/recommended-project:^11 mydrupal
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mydrupal

Step 4 – Configure Nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/drupal

Add the Drupal-recommended Nginx config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/mydrupal/web;
    index index.php;
    location / { try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string; }
    location @rewrite { rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1; }
    location ~ .php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/drupal /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 5 – Create the Settings File

cp /var/www/mydrupal/web/sites/default/default.settings.php 
   /var/www/mydrupal/web/sites/default/settings.php
mkdir -p /var/www/mydrupal/web/sites/default/files
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mydrupal/web/sites/default

Step 6 – Run the Web Installer

Visit http://example.com/install.php. Choose language, installation profile (Standard), and enter your database credentials when prompted.

Step 7 – Secure the Site

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com

In Drupal admin, disable PHP error display: Admin → Configuration → Development → Logging and errors → None.

Conclusion

Drupal 11 is now running on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Install contributed modules via Composer, configure caching with Redis, and run drush for command-line management to build a powerful enterprise site.